The Way In | Tabernacle Prayer

Hey, good morning, church. How's everyone doing today? Everyone doing good? So, so, so good to be with you today. Want to look at the camera and say welcome to all of those that are online with us today. And I want to give a special shout out to the men and women watching from a correctional facility behind bars. Come on, Calvary Church. Why don't you just give them just a warm welcome today. Hey, I love you guys. Pray for you. You're not a project to us. You are family. Well, we are in week one of a brand new series that we're kicking off that's in conjunction with our week of prayer and fasting, September 13th through 20th, called Lord Send Revival. Come on, how many believe that our nation needs revival? Come on, how many believe that our city needs revival? Come on, how many believe that our church needs revival? And I'm going to show you how to pray in this series. I'm going to teach you how to pray. I'm going to teach you what worship is all about. I'm going to teach you how to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You're going to learn how to hear from God. Just encourage you not to miss one week. God is going to move in a powerful way. And then please, please, please, please, please, please, please do not miss that week of prayer and fasting. That is an all church play that we are running. And I'm telling you, God is going to move in a powerful way. Two six AM prayers, Tuesday and Friday.

And then an all church worship night, kids, youth, and adults. And actually the topic that I'm teaching you today, tabernacle prayer. We're going to do that at that worship night. And then invited my friend, Greg Hubbard. He's going to be with us to share a message as well. It's going to be powerful. I'm ready. Are you ready? All right. And then let me just add on to the end of that video that that is our fall plan for Wednesday nights, 20 plus groups. You heard Pastor Kerry say we're going through freedom as an all church play. And I'm telling you, this is one of our hallmark groups here at the church. I want everyone to attend freedom at some point. Whether you've just given your life to Jesus or whether you've been following Jesus for 50 plus years, freedom is life changing. And I'm telling you, this fall, it's going to be so powerful. We're going to put a freedom conference on the end of it. And I'm telling you, you're going to release all that stuff that's been holding you captive for years. Anyone that's been through freedom, just go ahead and just give witness to that, say, amen, that that freedom material really is life changing. And so I'm excited for that. All right. Hey, let's jump into the word today, going to teach you how to pray, going to teach you how to pray. See, one of the things that I've discovered about prayer is that most Christians know they're supposed to pray. The problem is that a lot of us were never really taught how to pray. We've been inspired to pray.

We've been told that prayer is important. We probably even heard a sermon or two about prayer from time to time. But sometimes inspiration isn't enough. Sometimes you need information. Sometimes you need someone to actually give you the tools. Because if we're being real, prayer can feel really intimidated. Let me ask you this question today. Have you ever been out to eat with a group of people? And someone says, "Okay, Ralph, it's your turn to pray over the meal. What do you do?" You get all nervous in that moment, right? Immediately, your heart starts racing. Or maybe worse today. Maybe you grew up in a church like mine where you're having an event. And the leader said, "All right, everyone, let's circle up and pray. Let's do circle prayer." So they say, "Everybody, you must hold hands." And already just telling everybody to hold hands and you don't even know the person to the left, you're already starting to get uncomfortable. This is kind of weird. And circle prayer is this, what happens is somebody prays out loud and then you squeeze the hand of the person next to you and then it's their turn to pray. And you keep going around the circle and you're a couple people down the circle and you're already starting to do math in your head. You're like, "How many is it until it gets to me?" And you're already are worried if somebody is going to pray your need or your material ahead of you. And then what will you pray? And then there's always that one person in circle prayer that is just that amazing holy of holy person that had just spent their whole morning with God and they pray in King James

language. They're like, "Oh gracious and most blessed Father, we come to you in the name of our Lord and save you Jesus Christ." And then they start praying in tongues and you don't even know what they're praying but it sounds something like, "I should have bought a Hyundai but I bought a Mitsubishi." And you're like, "I cannot even keep up with this." Then the squeeze gets closer and closer and closer and finally it gets to you and everybody has prayed all the material and you don't know what to do and so there's this awkward pause in silence and then you just do squeeze, squeeze, you just move it right along, okay? Come on, has anyone ever been there before? Don't act like you're so holy in church, all right? Come on. Prayer was never supposed to be intimidating. Prayer is just simply relationship with God. When you have a relationship with someone, when you're close with them, you don't have to manufacture conversation. Think about your spouse or your closest friend. You might talk to them in the morning. You might send them a text early in the day. You might call them when you're on your way to something in the middle of the day. You send them a late afternoon text. You come home, you spend dinner with them and hang out together in the evening. this ongoing conversation because there's What if you learn to talk with God throughout your entire day? That's what Paul is chowing us to in Ephesians chapter six verse 18. Look what he says in this first, they're gonna throw it right up on the screen. Here's what he says.

Pray in the spirit in what in? Say it out loud in every situation. Come on, we're gonna say that again. And I think the 930 AM can do better. Come on. Pray in the spirit in what in? In every situation, use every kind of prayer and requests that there is. What if conversation with God was supposed to be all day long? We say here at Calvary Church, that prayer is our first response, not our last resort. In other words, before you send that text message, pray first. Before you send that email, pray first. Before you have that tough conversation, pray first. Pray first, prayer is our first response, not our last resort. And notice what Paul says, he says, use every kind of prayer. In other words, there's some models, there's some templates, there's some patterns of prayer that have been provided for us in scripture. The Lord's prayer is one of those models. That Jesus gave us the Lord's prayer, not just as some verses that we're supposed to memorize and just recite in 30 seconds, but he actually gave us the Lord's prayer as a model to pray through. So when you get to our Father who are in heaven, how will be your name, you spend five minutes hollowing and praising the names of God.

And then when you get through thy kingdom come, thy will be done, you pray his will, you pray his kingdom come over your own agenda. You pray for the lost to be saved, you pray for peace in our world, you pray his agenda over your own needs. And today I wanna give you another pattern that will help you develop your prayer time with God. It's called tabernacle prayer, tabernacle prayer. And if you'll learn these seven simple movements, you can go from wondering, what am I supposed to say to actually enjoying time with God? Tabernacle prayer, it comes from the Old Testament when God delivers the Israelites out of Egypt. If you've never seen the movie The Prince of Egypt, if you're new to following Jesus, that's a great picture or illustration of what God did in scripture. He delivers four million Israelites out of Egypt. They were in slavery and God sets them free. And they of course cross the Red Sea, the Red Sea parts. They go to Mount Sinai and Moses gets the Ten Commandments. And after the Ten Commandments, they start to head to the Promised Land. And should have only taken a few days, but it actually took them 40 years to get into the Promised Land. And they wander around in this circle and Saudi Arabia in the wilderness, the Bible calls it, because God was trying to teach them some things.

And since they weren't permanently in their home yet, they needed a permanent facility in the future, but they weren't there yet. So in their present day, they needed this portable church building that they would have along the way. Think the Lord, we have a permanent facility here at Calvary Church. Come on, is anyone grateful for the building that we have as you're sitting in comfortable seats with air conditioning today? Come on, may we never stop being grateful for what the Lord has blessed us. There are some churches that are portable churches. What that means is they have to set up and tear down their facility every single week just to have a Sunday service. And this is the situation that these people were in. There's two different uses of words in scripture for portable and permanent in regards to the house of worship in the Old Testament. The permanent was called the Temple, and the Temple was to be in Jerusalem. That was their real building. The portable was called the Tabernacle. In other words, it was a moving church on a cart. When God was in a cloud by day and a fire by night, but he's in this cart and when they stopped, God was telling them that he would stop. And when he moved, the cart would move.

And God says to Moses in Exodus 25, he says, have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live amongst them. He must build this tabernacle and its furnishings exactly according to the pattern I will show you. And don't miss why God wanted it. So I can live amongst them. Oh, that's the heart of prayer. I hope you hear that today. That God is not a God that's into religion. God is a God that's into real relationship with you. He wants to know you and he wants you to know him. And we're not under the Old Testament law today. Jesus was already the fulfillment of the law. And because of Jesus, we don't need a priest to go before us into a tabernacle. In fact, the veil has already been torn today and we have direct access to God the Father. But while we don't follow the Old Testament ritual, there's still something very powerful that we can use as a guide to our prayer time if we follow this pattern, tabernacle prayer. I want to show you a picture of the tabernacle today in the Old Testament. Go ahead and throw that picture up on the screen, guys. It was basically this large tent-off area. And if you walk through the entrance, the darker fence, you can see I know the picture has blue and yellow in it, but if you can see the darker fence on it, you stepped into what was called the outer courts.

And in the outer court, there were two pieces of furniture that as you would pass by, you'd wake your way into the presence of God. That inside the outer court, there was another smaller covered tent called the tent of meeting. And the tent was divided into two sections. The first section is called the holy place, and it contained three pieces of furniture. Then at the very back, there was a curtain called the veil, and behind the veil was the most holy place where the presence of God dwelt. Exodus 33, 11 tells us that inside the tent of meeting, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face as one speaks to a friend. And that's what I want for you in your time of devotion and prayer with the Lord, not just going through the motions, not just figuring out the right words, not just praying the way that somebody else prays, just because you hear them repeat it. But you having this protocol to access the presence of God, six pieces of furniture in seven steps. You ready? If you're taking notes and I sure hope you are, here's the first one, the outer court, and that is Thanksgiving and praise. In the outer court, you give God thanks. The first thing you would ever do is you were entering into the tabernacle is you would enter the gates.

When you enter before you even got to the first piece of furniture, you would take some time before you ask God for something new, you would already thank him for what he's already done. And sometimes all of our prayer time is this, okay God, here's my list of all the things I need from you today. Okay God, here's what I'm going through in this area. And that area, here's all my problems. I need you to fix this and fix that and solve that and give me a new job and figure out this issue and provide for me in this area. God I need this, okay thank you, I'm on my way. What if our prayer actually started like this? God you really don't owe me anything. The cross was enough. And I wanna just thank you for this day. I wanna thank you for my family. I wanna thank you for my life. I wanna thank you for Calvary Church. I wanna thank you for my blessings. Come on, would you just take three seconds today and give your best praise to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. God I'm so grateful for what you've done. God I'm just grateful I can't help but praise you. Gratitude means what I have is enough. What I have is enough. Lord you've done so much for me and Lord I just love you.

And I try to find a fresh reason every single day to thank the Lord. I got up this morning, I was driving to church and I was just saying thank you God. Thank you God for calling me. Thank you God that this is the day that you have made. I will rejoice and be glad. Thank you God. As Psalm 100 verse four says, "Enter his gates with thanksgiving. "Go into his courts with praise. "Give thanks to him and praise his name." In other words, before you ask God for something new, thank him for what he's already done. See gratitude turns what I have into enough. And so every day I wanna challenge you. Challenge you this week. Next week the week of September 13th through 20th as you're starting to pray and fast with us as a church, start finding a fresh reason every single day to say God thank you. Thank you. Start with praise. Then you get to the next area which is called the brazen altar. The brazen altar is the cross. The brazen altar is where we focus on the cross. So at the brazen altar it will be burning and you'd see blood everywhere. The four horns of the altar will be covered in blood

and it reminded you that something had to die because I've sinned and it reminded you that because of our sins blood had to be shed. Of course in the New Testament we don't burn and kill animals anymore because the cross of Jesus Christ was paid for once and for all. He was the perfect sacrifice. He was the spotless lamb that was slain but I just pause every day right there at that altar and I just picture the cross. I focus on the cross and I thank God for the cross of Jesus Christ. Honestly church the only thing that gives you a right to take another step towards God to boldly enter his throne room with confidence not by what you did but because of what Jesus did that's Hebrews chapter four and now you can approach the throne room of grace with confidence knowing this that Jesus already paid for everything and now you stand before the king of kings, the Lord of lords, the great judge. You stand before him. Why does snow impure her? This is Psalm 103, two through five. Praise the Lord oh my soul and forget not his benefits who forgives all of your sins. He heals all of your diseases. He redeems your life from the pit. He crowns you with love and compassion.

He satisfies your desires with good things. He didn't just forgive your sins. He gave you five things that I see in that verse. Number one, my sins are forgiven. Come on, someone, why don't you thank God today? That every single one of your sins, past, present, and future has been laid up on the cross of Jesus Christ. He's already paid for it in advance. Number two, he heals all of my diseases. Diseases aren't just sickness in my body. It's also every place of dis-ease. It's every place that I'm sick in my soul. It's every bit of depression, anxiety, fear, worry, stress. I thank God that he's already taken the stripes on his back so that depression, anxiety, fear has no hold on me. God has not given me a spirit of fear, but power, and love, and a sound mind. I'm preaching about 33 and a half percent better than you're responding right now. Come on, are you listening to me? He sets us free. (congregation applauding) Then he goes through it. He redeems my life from the pits. You know what the pit is? It's where your life ended up that it wasn't supposed to end up. The Bible says that he'll redeem you. Redeem means he'll bring you back

to your own original intent before that sin happens. And I don't know about you, but apart from Jesus, without Jesus, my life would have been headed to a deep pit. Come on, someone, you know it's true. This is not false humility today. I am a nobody. I'm a nobody. I'm an average person on my best day. I do not have great skills. I do not have great ability. I do not have this great purpose or this great passion. I was not the salutatorian or the valvatorian of my class in high school. I was average. And God took this miserable life and ripped me out of the myery clay. And he set my feet on solid rock. And here I am today. I'm your pastor. I'm the lead pastor. And I'm leading people. And only God could have done that. God gets all the praise. God gets all the glory. And so I say, thank you, God, for redeeming my life. You've placed me back to my original intents. He crowns me with love and compassion. That means he transformed me into a person that I could never be on my own. In other words, he's doing a new work inside of me. And finally, he satisfies my desires with good things.

That means he's blessing me. He's blessing me not to just have more stuff. He's blessing me to be a blessing to others. And then you get to the third area in the tabernacle, which is called the labor. The labor is cleansing and surrender. You came to this basin filled with water called the labor. And interestingly, it was made with mirrors. So you leaned over to wash yourself and you would see yourself. In every single day, you need to offer your life and offer your body to the Lord. You offer your life. You offer your body to the Lord. And thank God, thank God he's doing a great work in my life. But I still got a little ways to go. How about you? And I approached God and I said, God, I know that I'm saved. God, I know that my future is heaven. And God, I know that I'm washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. But I'm not satisfied with where I'm at and I walk with you. I'm not happy with where I'm out in the journey. God, I can look and live more like you. And so I'm asking you to cleanse every single part of my life. And I do it by offering every part of my life to God. And so I literally do this. I start at the top of my head to the soles of my feet. And I say, God, I'm giving you my mind today. God, let me think thoughts that honor you today.

According to Philippians, chapter four, to be thoughts that are excellent, thoughts that are praiseworthy, thoughts that are of good rapport. I want to have pure thoughts today. I want to have a mind of integrity. God, I offer my mind to you. I give you my eyes. Lord, I make a covenant with my eyes, as David said, not to look lustfully at any person that is not my wife. I give you my eyes today. God, I give you my ears today. Help me recognize the voice of God saying, this is the way. Walk in it. May I know when the devil's speaking and may I turn away from that voice? And may I know where the father is speaking. And may I run to that voice every single day. God, I give you my mouth. I'm only going to speak things that build people up. Never things that tear people down. I'm only going to speak the truth. I'm never going to lie. God, I pray that the meditations of my heart and the words of my mouth be pleasing in your sight. I give you my hands today. Oh, God, use my hands to serve people. I'm going to reach out to people today. I'm going to care for people today.

I'm going to hug people today. I'm going to be a giver today, not just a taker today. And I give my feet, God. They're going to be ordered to the Lord. I will not take one step to the left or the right outside of your will, but direct me. May I walk the straight and narrow path. May I fulfill the calling of God that you have on my life, my body, my breath in my lungs, Calvary church. It all belongs to you. Why do I do that? Because Romans 12 1 says, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. Holy and pleasing. And just because I can be deceived from time to time, and just because I may have thought that I offered everything to the Lord, I will often then pray the prayer of Psalm 139, which says, "Search me, O God." Search me and know my heart. God, test me and know my anxious thoughts. O God, would you see if there's any offensive way within me and then would you lead me in the way everlasting? That's a really dangerous prayer. God, show me anything in my life that doesn't look like you. Because before God changes everything around me, sometimes He wants to change something inside of me. The series was based off the quote from evangelist Gypsy Smith when he was asked what the secret of revival is, and he said these words, he said, "Go home,

"take a piece of chalk, "draw a circle around yourself, then pray this prayer." Oh Lord, I pray that you would revive everything inside of this circle. That's what we're doing September 13th or 20th in our week of prayer and fasting. We're saying, "Oh God, revive this church. "Oh God, revive Burlington County. "Oh God, revive our nation. "Oh God, bring us a harvest of dream teamers, "but God let it start with me." First, now we move from the outer court into the tent itself, into what was called the holy place. And when you stepped inside, there were three pieces of furniture, and one of them was the Golden Lampstand or Menorah with seven branches on it. And these lamps were kept burning continually before the Lord. Throughout scripture, fire is connected with the presence and the work of the Holy Spirit. So we come to this lampstand, and this becomes a reminder to stop and pray, "Holy Spirit, I need you, I need you." So every day we can pray this prayer, "Holy Spirit, fill me today. "I invite the work of the Holy Spirit into my life." Thank God for God the Father. Thank God for God the Son, but they're up in heaven. Come on someone, the Holy Spirit is with you today. So you gotta invite the work of the Holy Spirit

in your life. And if you allow him, he will talk to you all day long, and you say, "Holy Spirit, I need the Spirit of wisdom today. "I need the Spirit of understanding. "God, I'm praying for the Spirit of counsel, "lights, knowledge, Lord, work inside of me. "I need the fear of the Lord. "God, I know it's not by my might or by my power, "but it's by your spirit, say it to the Lord. "God, I don't want to live in my own strength today. "I don't want to pastor in my own strength today. "Me and me is weak and you and you is weak, "but I need his strength. "I need his help. "I need his spirit in my life and so do you." And then I need the fruit of the Holy Spirit according to Galatians chapter 5 verse 22, where love, and joy, and peace, and patience, and kindness, and goodness, and faithfulness, and gentleness, and self-control. God, would you allow that to be evident in and through my life? Then across the room, you'd come to another piece of furniture and it was called the table of show bread, the table of show bread. And on that table were 12 loaves of bread representing the 12 tribes of Israel, continually set before the Lord. Now, picture this with me. Have you ever walked into a room where somebody is baking fresh bread?

Oh, come on, just picture it with me right now. You smell it even before you see it. And immediately you want some because bread is meant to feed you. And here's the picture right here. As you move through tabernacle prayer, the table of show bread reminds us that our souls need to be fed as well. And here's what feeds us. It's the word of God. Come on, someone, are you thankful for your Bible today? Are you thankful for the word of God today? That the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of God stands forever. His word is a lamp onto our feet and a light onto our path. It's the word of God that changes us. Matthew four, verse four. Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." And so this is where you open up your Bible. The table of show bread is the word of God. And at some point you stop talking and you let God talk to you. And that's why you gotta open your Bible. And I was on the phone with someone a couple days ago and they were seeking wisdom. They were seeking counsel. They were telling me about all the struggles and all the problems and the situations going on in life.

They had some really, really big things that were happening in their life. And that listened to them for about 15 minutes. They just laid it all out on the phone. I said, "Listen, I'm gonna pray for you in a moment. Do you mind if I coach you from home? Are you open to some coaching?" They said, "Absolutely." I said, "Now I can't fix all your problem, but I can give you some coaching. I can give you some steps." I said, "Tell me in the season that you've been struggling with that you can go through. Tell me have you been reading your Bible?" They said, "No, no absolutely not." I said, "What are you looking for then? I need a word from God." That's what they said, "I need a word from God." I said, "Thank God that God does speak through pastors and preachers that deliver the word every single week." And thank God for evangelists that come and bring the word of God and speak to us. And thank God for gifts of prophecy. And thank God for times where God audibly speaks. That does happen from time to time. But the primary way that God speaks to His people is through the Word of God. You've got to read your Bibles. So that God not only speaks to you, but so you can fight the enemy. Come on, the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. And you've got to not only read the Bible, but let it read you and commit some promises to your heart. So when the enemy tries to attack,

you can say, "The Lord is my light and my salvation of whom shall I fear, of whom shall I be afraid." When you're worried about provision, no, no, no, no, no. My God shall supply all of my needs according to His riches and glory. You own the cattle on a thousand hills. When you feel defeated, no, no, no. I am more than a conqueror through Christ, greater is He that's within me than He that's within the world. The Bible does two things. Write this down. The Word feeds me and the Word fights for me. You need a word bigger from God than the lie that's coming against you. The lie that's coming against you. The next area in the tabernacle is the altar of incense, the altar of incense, and that's worship. So you worship His name. You worship His name. Now this altar is different than the first one that we approach that was the brazen altar. This one's not blood and animals, y'all. This is not dirty in a mess. This is bed, bath, and beyond smelling good. Come on, someone. I'm a candle guy. How about you, right? Just think of that best fragrance just burning. This is this place right here. It actually soothes your soul. You'd walk up to the altar of incense, and in the Old Testament, verse by verse, it actually says that incense is something that we give to God, and our lives are supposed to be a burning incense before the Lord, a sweet fragrance to God. That's worship. That's worship. That's worship. We'll pass it in. I thought that we already worshiped in the beginning. I thought that we already thank God. No, no, no, what we did was praise. You need another difference between praise and worship. Praise is thanking Him for what He's already done for us. But then there's worship, and worship is magnifying Him for who He is. Come on, the way we worship, I found it so beautiful. It's found in the names of God. And you say, "God, I thank You that you're Jehovah Jaira. You're my provider. I thank You that you're Jehovah Rafa. You're my healer. I thank You that you're my shepherd. I thank You that you're my comfort and shelter. You're my present help and time I need." There's nobody like you, God. Proverbs 18-10 says, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to it, and they are safe." Because here's what worship does. Worship makes God bigger in my eyes, and my problem smaller. Some of you need to stop telling God how big your problem is. He already knows all your problems anyways. And you start telling your problem how big your God is. And then you reach the final place. The final place is called the Ark of the Covenant. That is the place of intercession, where you intercede for others. You intercede for others. So behind the veil was the Ark of the

Covenant. And between these wings is what is called the Mercy Seed. That's where the cloud and the fire was. Let me say Pastor Dan, what do you do when you actually get face to face with God? What happens? Very clear in Scripture, you now have the responsibility of acting as an attorney, as an intercessor, and you plead the case for everyone else. Don't worry about your problems. You start interceding for everyone else. You know what matters most to God? Lost people. Lost people. You all have a one. Who is your one that's close to you but far from God? Who is that one that you're interceding for every single day? 1 Timothy 2.1 says, "I urge you then, first of all, that petitions, prayer, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people." Listen to this, for kings and those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. And in this time, you pray for governmental authority. You pray for the president and the vice president, whether you like him or not. You better say amen right there. You pay for parental authority. Honor your father and mother. You pray for spiritual authority. That's your pastor. And you pray for workplace authority. That's your boss. And you bless them every single day. You say, "God, I pray that you would bless them. I pray that you'd sustain them. I pray that you'd give them wisdom. And I pray that you'd keep them. And if you'll just take these steps toward God, I'm telling you, you'll enjoy the protocol to his presence. Does this make sense?